Musings of a novice ..........

[Tarne]

How best to simply summarise my trek to date around the port learning curve?

Well, with a nod to Yeats - 'port is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper'. I seriously considered ending this post here.

Given the last comment it would be tedious to detail a litany of experiences along my chosen route so will just make these few observations:-

Ordinary Rubys - pleased to have had the experience but except for a couple l need to find it's doubtful I shall return.

Special Reserves - great value, wide choice and consistent and extraordinary quality. My top three are Graham Six Grapes (initially I couldn't source this easily but by chance purchased the first bottle in Funchal where it topped off a dinner wonderfully); Taylor First Estate and finally my absolute favourite to which I continue to return is Dow Master Blend.

Another Reserve worth a mention (not least to keep handy for any miserable beggar you may know who fails to reciprocate and offer a port but always expects to drink yours) is M & S Finest Reserve, especially as it is reduced from £12 to £7 less a further reduction of 25% if you buy six now.

L B Vs - having, to date, sourced 28 and tasted 17 I must say that except for two they have been a joy to drink.

Although my tasting of V P has been limited to 8 wines - usually when I've wished a 'port treat', having slipped from my methodical approach of 'plan my drink, drink my plan' - L B Vs have been a revelation in terms of enlightening variation, tremendous quality and good value. So far 'unfiltered' have been more ​pleasing and interesting and of ​better quality.

Tasting notes - my limited tasting experience has made me a tad reluctant to post my notes, however recent contradictory forum notes and the results of a tasting I arranged for fun at a family lunch - where five adults gave 4 significantly different appraisals of my second and last bottle of 1995 Quinta dos Canais - has encouraged me to post.

Although improving I continue to have difficulty identifying uncommon aromas and flavours, especially some botanicals​. ​Also I avoid extravagant terms such as 'huge' ​because with such limited experience I'm unsure what it really means - for me there could easily be a more prodigious wine just around the corner.

Which brings me to a dilemma - I wish to adopt a point scoring system to complement my qualitative assessment of the various categories of port and have considered the wine spectators 100 point system. However, given that initially I won't be tasting blind and only one bottle at a time I would welcome a steer on how best a novice should start to tackle this aspect of tasting. I suppose I'm asking experienced members - if you were starting again what would you do? Or maybe at this stage perhaps I should forget about adopting such a quantitative system and just keep tasting until ........... ?

In addition when it comes to some exotic descriptors​​ ​for example "burnt orange peel" all I can say is I will add it to my lexicon the very next time I ​peel an orange and there is a blow lamp handy.

Onwards and upwards!

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[jdaw1]

Your uncertainty, with a “joy to drink”, will certaintly fit right in here. Welcome.

[LGTrotter]

Lovely post, I have enjoyed mulling it over with a glass or two of Sandeman 2011 LBV (on offer at a tad over a tenner at Waitrose btw).

I had some thoughts on your thoughts as follows: Please don't be wary of posting your notes. It is very helpful to look at a range of notes across time when thinking about what to buy or when to drink. With the points thing I found it more comprehensible to begin with if I looked at how critics rated wine. Hugh Johnson's one to five star can feel easier because it is a bigger target to hit. Parker's 100 points seems intimidating but if you read his points ranges and keep them in mind it is simply a matter of adjusting a few points as to how average/good/excellent/outstanding they are. And I think everyone understands that they are a rule of thumb rather than absolute. Have a pop. With the identification of flavours it sometimes feels like there a competition to identify more outlandish backnotes of esoteric cuisines but this is largely affectation. I prefer the other affectation of trying to convey how the port spoke to me, figuratively that is. It must be all this talk of Yeats. And I once made burnt orange ice cream. My wife was disparaging, but I thought it very good.

Oh and now you have started to be 'into port' your friends and relations will expect you to produce increasingly old and expensive port. You might as well give in, just try and drink more of it than they do.

[Tarne]

Thank you both for the greeting and ideas.

I have yet to taste my original bottle of 2011 Sandeman L B V. However, the idea of monitoring the progress of an "unresolved" wine overtime appeals greatly and is far too interesting to resist - all I need now is the patience not to open the additional bottles too soon.

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[Alex Bridgeman]

I'm just catching up with a few posts which appeared while I was snowed under with work and other stuff. This was a great post to read - I love reading about other's journeys of port discovery.

I'm one of the people guilty of using exotic cuisine descriptions for the flavours I find in port. Some of these are because I'm trying to make subtle distinctions between flavours but they are all based on personal experience and I thought in the spirit of sharing I'd post the back story of why I sometimes use burnt orange zest as a descriptor for the flavour in ports.

I love home made fruit cake. My favourite recipe comes from Mrs Beeton's "All About Cookery", which my grandmother introduced me to many years ago. I have, of course, improved on her recipe by doubling the amount of fruit used but there is nothing as good as the smell of a fruit cake cooling slowly after coming out of the oven.

For me, a fruit cake should be cooked at quite a high temperature. This leaves the inside of the cake moist and crumbly but slightly scorches the top of the cake. Any raisins or sultanas are caramelised and slightly chewy - and any orange zest is slightly burnt to give an intense burst of orange flavour combined with a hint of fragrant burnt sugars - it's a fabulous combination of flavour. If I had to describe it to someone on a fruit cake appreciation website I could describe it as being like taking a sip of 40 year old tawny.

Coming back to the questions you raised, I would positively encourage you to post tasting notes, whether with or without scoring. It is always of interest to read the thoughts and impressions of other people on a particular port and to compare these with your own. You're welcome to score your thoughts using anything from a simple scale along the lines of "I liked this but wouldn't seek it out again" to the 5 star scale to the 100 point scale with point boundaries matched against qualitative boundaries (e.g. 80-84 pleasant, 85-89 good etc).